1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a console for a passenger compartment of a vehicle having an adjustably-mounted video display unit mounted thereto. In one embodiment, the video display unit can be extended from the interior of the console and positioned in a variety of orientations for viewing by passengers residing in the vehicle interior.
2. Description of the Related Art
Passenger vehicles are including an increasing number of amenities to increase an operator""s and his/her passenger""s use and enjoyment of a passenger vehicle. Passenger vehicles such as minivans are even including television-type video display units for viewing while riding in the passenger vehicle. These video display units are often interconnected to recording and playback devices, such as video cassette recorders and digital video disc (DVD) units, so that occupants of the passenger vehicle may enjoy movies and other prerecorded programs as well as live television broadcasts, such as through the use of a conventional antenna or satellite-dish device.
The size of these video display units is important to provide as large a picture as possible for the occupants of the passenger vehicle while minimizing the storage space required therefor. In order to economize storage space as well as provide an optimum video display unit diagonal viewing size, several attempts have been made to mount a video display unit within a passenger compartment of a vehicle.
One of these attempts has involved mounting a video display unit to a xe2x80x9cheadlinerxe2x80x9d portion of the roof of the passenger compartment of the vehicle in an overhead console. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,023 to Suman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,784 to Vitito, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,762 Vitito disclose an overhead console for a passenger vehicle including a liquid crystal display (LCD) unit mounted in the overhead console. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,120 to Frankhouse et al. discloses a video display unit mounted within a vanity console located in a flip-down visor in a vehicle passenger compartment. These overhead console locations have prompted ergonomic-related complaints from occupants of passenger vehicles due to an undesirable viewing angle toward the roof of the passenger compartment of the vehicle, higher manufacturing and installation costs due to the mounting to an overhead console, sun roofs are extremely difficult if not impossible to install due to obstruction by the LCD unit, harnessing wires and routing cabling to the overhead console is difficult, and this type of video display unit often blocks the rearview mirror sight line.
Other attempts to locate a video display unit within a passenger compartment of a vehicle have attempted to locate the video display unit within a rear panel of one or both of the front seats of the vehicle passenger compartment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,715 to Jones discloses a vehicular entertainment system wherein a video display unit is mounted to a front seat by straps wrapped around the seat. This type of mounting is often undesirable due to complaints from occupants of the rear seats of the vehicle who are seated laterally from the video display unit and must either strain to view the video display unit screen panel or accept an undesirable line of sight often resulting in undesirable viewing of the video display unit. Further, to the extent the passenger vehicle comprises a typical minivan which has multiple rows of rear seats, those located in the rearwardmost row of seats in the minivan are often unable to view the video display unit mounted to the rear of one of the forwardmost seats in the vehicle.
Other attempts to optimally locate a video display unit within a passenger compartment of a vehicle interior have resulted in the retractable mounting of the video display unit within a console typically mounted between a pair of front seats in the passenger compartment of the vehicle interior. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,302 to Berry et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,081 to Young et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,160 to Landry disclose vehicle consoles having video display units mounted thereto. Often, passengers of these types of vehicles complain of these console-mounted video display units because the vertical height of the video display unit is too low. It has been found that viewers who are seated in rear seats of a passenger compartment of a vehicle and who often restrict their line of vision to an angularly downward direction often are susceptible to motion sickness in the rear seats of a vehicle. Further, these types of console-mounted video display units are often very difficult to be viewed by passengers in the front seats of the passenger compartment of a vehicle.
Thus, it is believed that the current invention overcomes limitations of the prior art by providing a console-stored video display unit which can be extended to a viewing position wherein the video display unit is adjustable both about a vertical pivot axis as well as a horizontal pivot axis to allow tilting and other reorientation of the video display unit to provide for optimal viewing results by occupants of the passenger compartment of a vehicle interior. In addition, the video display unit, when extended to the viewing position, can be vertically adjusted to place the video display unit in an optimal viewing height for whatever the ergonomic considerations happen to be for occupants of the vehicle interior. The display unit also includes a console interface portion forming a smooth, aesthetically-pleasing surface for the console when the display unit is positioned in a retracted position within the console.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a console adapted to be mounted within a passenger compartment in a vehicle comprising a body having an outer surface and defining at least one storage compartment with an opening in the outer surface, a first cover pivotally mounted to the body between a closed position and an open position, the cover being in register with the opening in the closed position and forming a flush outer appearance with the outer surface. The body further has a recess formed in the outer surface adjacent the storage compartment opening. A bracket is movably mounted within the recess between a retracted position wherein the bracket is stowed within the recess and an extended position wherein the bracket extends beyond the outer surface. A video display unit is mounted to the bracket for movement with the bracket, wherein at least one of the bracket and the video display unit includes a console interface portion forming a flush outer appearance with the outer surface when the bracket is in the retracted position. The video display unit being positioned ergonomically for viewing by occupants of the vehicle when the bracket is located in the extended position. A video signal source is operably interconnected to the video display unit.
The bracket can include a seat having a detent arm actuatable by a release button. The video display unit can be removably mounted to the bracket by the detent arm when the release button is pressed. The video source can comprise a playback device mounted within the console. The video display unit can be interconnected to the video source by a cable. The video display unit can include a receiver and the video source can include a transmitter adapted to transmit a multimedia signal to the video display unit receiver. A wireless interconnection is thereby formed between the video source transmitter and the video display unit receiver.
A push-push mechanism can be formed between the bracket and the body. An occupant of the vehicle can thereby depress and release the console interface portion to move the video display unit between the retracted and extended positions via the bracket. The video display unit can be pivotally mounted to the bracket for rotation between a range of ergonomic viewing angles. A detent mechanism can be formed between the bracket and the video display unit for retaining the video display unit in a particular preselected discrete rotational position relative to the bracket.
The console can include at least one jack operably interconnected to the video display unit for receiving a signal from an alternate video source. The alternate video source can be a videocassette player, a gaming unit or a television signal, for example.